On-line Reading
At university, there will be many occasions when you will have to read articles on-line.
Your task: Read the following two on-line articles: PRINTING is optional 
Great Thinkers
Article: “How Successful Leaders Think” by Roger Martin
From the Harvard Business School (Roger Martin is the dean of the Rotman
School of Management, University of Toronto)
http://api.ning.com/files/8kDDsbtYBUVcRysOGZEcVJ3qZNaVBFbhO73edTmiDw_/HowSuccessfulLeadersThink.pdf
Article: “Iconoclasts: Great Minds Think Different” Interview by Stephen Watt
(subject of interview: Gregory Berns)
From the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/integrativethinking/Iconoclasts.pdf
Answer the following questions
1. What is integrative thinking?
2. How does Bob Young demonstrate integrative thinking?
3. Explain the metaphor “opposable thumbs.”
4. What are the four stages of decision making?
5. Differentiate between conventional and integrative thinkers.
6. Define an iconoclast.
7. What are the three roadblocks that stand in the way of innovative thinking?
8. Where do new ideas come from?
9. Compare Picasso to Van Gogh.
10. How can we unleash our power to think differently?
Looking for interesting reads?
Iconoclast: A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently
By Gregory Berns
No organization can survive without iconoclasts - innovators who singlehandedly upturn conventional wisdom and manage to achieve what so many
others deem impossible.
Though indispensable, true iconoclasts are few and far between. In Iconoclast,
neuroscientist Gregory Berns explains why. He explores the constraints the
human brain places on innovative thinking, including fear of failure, the urge to
conform, and the tendency to interpret sensory information in familiar ways.
Through vivid accounts of successful innovators ranging from glass artist Dale Chihuly to
physicist Richard Feynman to country/rock trio the Dixie Chicks, Berns reveals the inner
workings of the iconoclast's mind with remarkable clarity. Each engaging chapter goes on to
describe practical actions we can each take to understand and unleash our own potential to
think differently - such as seeking out new environments, novel experiences, and first-time
acquaintances.
Packed with engaging stories, science-based insights, potent practices, and examples from a
startling array of disciplines, this engaging book will help you understand how iconoclasts think
and equip you to begin thinking more like an iconoclast yourself.
AND
The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative
Thinking
by Roger L. Martin
If you want to be as successful as Jack Welch, Larry Bossidy, or Michael Dell, read
their autobiographical advice books, right? Wrong, says Roger Martin in The
Opposable Mind. Though following “best practice” can help in some ways, it also
poses a danger: By emulating what a great leader did in a particular situation, you’ll
likely be terribly disappointed with your own results. Why? Your situation is
different.
Instead of focusing on what exceptional leaders do, we need to understand and emulate how they think.
Successful businesspeople engage in what Martin calls integrative thinking—creatively resolving the
tension in opposing models by forming entirely new and superior ones. Drawing on stories of leaders as
diverse as AG Lafley of Procter & Gamble, Meg Whitman of eBay, Victoria Hale of the Institute for One
World Health, and Nandan Nilekani of Infosys, Martin shows how integrative thinkers are relentlessly
diagnosing and synthesizing by asking probing questions—including “What are the causal relationships
at work here?” and “What are the implied trade-offs?”
Martin also presents a model for strengthening your integrative thinking skills by drawing on different
kinds of knowledge—including conceptual and experiential knowledge.
Integrative thinking can be learned, and The Opposable Mind helps you master this vital skill.